Kiss Me
by I want George
Summary: NS of course. Just a random fluffy Christmas piece. My first fanfic ever, so be nice!


**A/N: **Okay, I've never ever written fanfic before, so you will have to excuse me if this is awful. I just had the idea whena bunch of kids on the bus had a pack of Kisses and couldn't get over the intense amusement they found in asking each other for a kiss. It made me roll my eyes at the time, but I somehow managed to write itinto a little ficlet- go figure.

**Disclaimer: **If I owned CSI, George Eads would have a _lot_ more screentime. Preferably shirtless, but I'm not picky.

Sara Sidle was exhausted. Although a self-confessed workaholic, a triple-shift was most certainly not her idea of fun- especially on Christmas Eve. She sighed as she stood alone in the break room, the Christmas carols droning over the speakers making her cringe. She had always hated carols, even as a child. For some reason, they always made her feel even more lonely.

Most of the night shift had taken at least a few days off for the holidays, and Sara had found work lonesome for the last few days, having been forced to work almost completely solo, due to the lesser numbers of staff. Las Vegas had also been having a bout of cooler weather, and the break room seemed to be warmest place in the lab at the time. Paired with a cup of hot coffee, she felt quite content. Physically, anyway.

She was so lost in thought, she didn't even see her co-worker walk through the door. It wasn't until he poked her in the side that she finally realised there was someone else in the room. She smiled wearily. "Hey, Nick"

Nick smiled, leaning against the benchtop beside her. "Sara. You still here?" He knew her too well. Although he hadn't expected her to go home while waiting for her current case results to be processed, he had at least hoped. She always looked so tired, like she could barely look after herself. Not that she would ever let anyone else help her; Sara was independent. If she couldn't do it by herself, she wouldn't want it done at all. That was how she'd always been, he knew it. He sometimes wished that she would let someone in. He wanted to tell her that she didn't always have to be so alone; she could share what she was thinking, feeling, wishing, with someone else. Namely him. But he was in no position to bring that up here. Instead, he went to pour himself his own cup of coffee, before resuming his position on the bench beside her, her elbow just grazing his as they sipped their drinks.

"Uh-huh. Triple."

"Ouch. You didn't go home, I take it?"

She shook her head. "I… I couldn't. I can't sleep not knowing."

"So you sit in the break room for a day and a half without sleeping, and binge on caffeine instead? I'm sure that helps your case."

She smirked at his sarcasm. "For your information, I napped on the couch. For about an hour. And then Mia paged me with my results. But I did sleep."

"You should go home."

"I'm fine, Nick. Really. I'm okay." She returned her gaze to the plastic tree on the other side of the room, its barely-decorated branches mimicking the loneliness she had been feeling before Nick walked into the room. He always had that effect on her- he just made her feel that much less alone.

Nick smiled at her. He wasn't going to push her to stop her work. It was, after all, what she lived for. "Okay…"

"Besides, Christmas in the lab can be… fun, sometimes. In a weird way. Minus Greg constantly following me around with his mistletoe sprig, asking for a Christmas kiss." She rolled her eyes.

"Ah, Greg." He smiled to himself, shrugging. "But hey, can you blame the guy?" Nick wished Sara would realise he wasn't joking.

She smiled at him. "Can I ask you something?"

"You know you can." He took another sip of his coffee.

"How come you didn't go home for the holidays this year? You didn't even take any time off."

"I wanted to spend it with you, of course." He grinned as she rolled her eyes again. "I go home every year. And I only just saw my family over the summer. I wanted to spend Christmas in Vegas for once." He gulped at his mug again. "Besides, I knew I'd have company. And you are the best kind of company I know."

Sara laughed. "You are so full of it, you know that?"

Nick chuckled back at her. "Tell me you don't find it charming."

She hid her smile with her coffee cup. "Okay, I won't tell you. Oww!" she exclaimed, as Nick elbowed her lightly in the side. She leaned further back against the bench and closed her eyes, hoping to at least partially recharge her sleep-deprived body. It wasn't until she heard plastic rustling a few minutes later that she actually opened her eyes.

Nick was shuffling around in his bag, not willing to leave the warmth at Sara's side. His neighbour had brought him a packet of Hershey's Chocolate Kisses the previous day, and not being a huge sweet-tooth himself, Nick had brought them into work with him, in hopes of getting rid of the excessiveconfectionary to his colleagues.

Sara watched as Nick opened the plastic package in his hands, her stomach grumbling as she realised she hadn't eaten in almost eighteen hours. She spoke without thinking. "Ooh, can I have a kiss?"

Nick chuckled slightly to himself, and before either of them had time to react to Sara's embarrassment, he had turned himself towards her, placed his hand gently on her hip, and leaned his lips against hers.

Though she would laugh about it later on, Sara's first though as she felt Nick's warm, soft lips pressing against her own was that at least he wouldn't see her blushing at her previous comment. That though alone made her want to giggle, and it wasn't until she felt Nick pull away quickly that she realised how nice kissing him had felt. Still giddy from the mere idea of it, she somehow found herself unable to say anything but the first thought that came into her head as she found herself concentrating oddly hard on the tiled floor below their feet.

"I was, uh, actually talking about the chocolate."

A grin began to spread over both of their faces as Nick chuckled slightly, leaning himself back against the countertop. "Damn."

Sara smiled slightly, her eyes finally diverting from the floor. "But hey, it's Christmas. And it's you. I'll take what I can get."

Looking back at her, not quite sure of what to make of her statement, Nick was suddenly the surprised party as he felt Sara move away from his side and lean against him into the break-room counter, her lips lining up tenderly with his. He placed one hand on her back and another on her waist as he kissed her back, surprised at how well his evening had turned out. He'd liked Sara for a long time, but had somehow never envisioned _this_ actually happening. She felt so warm, and she smelt so good, and it was all he could do not to moan from the sheer euphoria of just _being_ with her. His briefly-opening eyes just managed to see the clock on the wall, and he pulled back from Sara to look her in the eye.

"And would you look at the time? It's officially past midnight. It looks like someone else got to give you a Christmas kiss." He brought his hand up to hold the side of her shoulder as he looked deep into her dark eyes. "Merry Christmas, Sara."

Sara smiled back at him. Maybe she didn't have to feel so lonely at Christmas after all. "Merry Christmas, Nick."


End file.
